Down Doubled

“There is a world in which what happened to Manley and Reid would serve as a cautionary tale to the staffers, operatives, and elected officials that feed Halperin and Heilemann their scoops. Indeed, one Congressional reporter tells me the incident caused Hill sources to freeze up as skittishness set in following Reid’s quote. You might think, too, that the focus and nature of Halperin and Heilemann’s projects would be its own disincentive to cooperate: Game Change, after all, made it clear that the authors consider everything—every private marital conversation, every petty squabble, every venal freak-out, every off-color remark, every otherwise forgotten scandal—in-bounds…. But that is not Halperin and Heilemann’s world. Their world is what they, in their trademark prosody, might call Campaignland. It’s a different, weird place. And Double Down is evidence that even after the first go-round, they continue to be able to exploit its alternate rules with aplomb.”—I always thought I would enjoy a story where you didn’t have to feel sorry for anyone because both the victims and the perpetrators are equally terrible, but it turns out that is not the case, you always need someone to root against and when it’s one set of self-important blowhards against another all you can do is realize that everyone is terrible and the only redeeming feature is that someday we will all be dead. Anyway, here’s a good look at how the game-changing reporters doubled down on their ugh just kill me now. [Related, and not related but more life-affirming]